Nicole Cooke has hit out at her rivals for failing to help her chase down the winning breakaway in the women's Olympic road race.

Cooke became increasingly frustrated when other riders refused to take turns at the front of the pack pursuing eventual gold medallist Sara Carrigan.

"The moment I rue is that when the Australian attacked, the six others did nothing," said Cooke.

"Her attack wasn't a problem. But no one took up the chase for a long time."

The escape came at a time when Cooke had just had a spell leading the group, which uses up more energy than being tucked in behind.

Carrigan was followed by Germany's Judith Arndt, who went on to take the silver medal but was later fined 200 Swiss francs (£88) for raising her middle finger in
Carrigan's direction after losing out in the race to the line.

But Cooke's repeated complaints to her rivals went unheeded.

"Basically when the Australian girl went I'd just done a turn on the front," said Cooke, who went into the race as one of the favourites.

"It wasn't really up to me to go and chase it.

I really did put all my efforts into the road race and I'm very disappointed

Nicole Cooke

"There were five or six others who had been saving their legs, just following the wheels, and none of them went.

"We had two Australians and a Russian sprinter [bronze medallist Olga Slyusareva] who was not working at all.

"The Spanish rider [Joane Somarriba Arrola] did some work and the Dutch girl [Mirjam
Melchers] wasn't that keen.